Archive for November 2009

Postal workers reported solid support for the strike across Southampton. At Bitterne the mood was particularly determined in the face of an ongoing dispute over drivers' hours that management want to reduce:...

Editorial: The third week of national strike action at Royal Mail has seen the bosses on the run. They fear the disruption of mail in the pre-Christmas period when over two billion letters, cards and parcels are...

DISGRACED EX-RBS boss, Fred 'the shred' Goodwin (notorious for sacking workers), must have produced a wry smile when the government instructed the largely nationalised bank to sell off 318 high street branches shedding a further 3,700 workers...

OVER RECENT months meetings have taken place of the participants in the 'No2EU-Yes to Democracy' European election coalition to see whether another alliance could be constructed to contest the forthcoming general election. Informal discussions have also been held with some left trade union leaders not involved in No2EU.

In recent weeks attacks carried out by Taliban fighters and a new ground offensive by the Pakistani government in the Waziristan region on the Afghan border, have deepened Pakistan's social, political and ethnic fault lines...

Unity of Sheffield strikers: Despite last minute talks and supposed 'offers', strikes by South Yorkshire firefighters and Sheffield First bus drivers went ahead on 31 October, joining postal delivery workers taking national industrial action on the same day...

This dispute and the reasons for these strikes go all the way back to 2002 and the appointment of Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier as chairman and chief executive of Royal Mail, a Coventry postal worker writes.

Sick and disabled under attack: THE PRO-big business parties, New Labour, Tories and LibDems, vied with each other at their party conferences with zealous plans to make the working class pay for the economic and financial crisis, writes Jim Horton, welfare rights adviser, north London.

1,000,000 young unemployed: It is hard to imagine what was going through the heads of the producers of ITV's Tonight show when they decided the best person to 'advise' unemployed youth on how to improve their job prospects was... Lord Alan Sugar! Sean Figg, Youth Fight for Jobs national organiser, writes.

Chief fire officer Mark Smitherman has sent every striking firefighter a letter threatening to effectively lock them out if they participate in the 17 short walk-outs planned over the nine days from 6 November...

The RMT transport union hosted an open-to-all conference on the crisis in working class political representation on Saturday 7 November. This followed the overwhelming backing given at the RMT's annual general meeting in July to the union's participation in the 'No2EU, Yes to Democracy' European election coalition, and a decision at that meeting to continue the discussion on the lack of working class political representation.

A thousand people came to Socialism 2009 over the weekend to participate in the various discussions and to be inspired by the two rallies. From long-standing Socialist Party activists to those attending their first ever meeting, everyone got something out of it.
"This event allowed me to really understand what the Socialist Party is actually about," said Jessica from Peckham in south London. "I joined the Socialist Party at the event."

THE WAR in Afghanistan is bringing more and more bloodshed. About 1,500 Afghan civilians were killed between January and August this year and the numbers are still rising. The 110,000 Nato-led troops sent...

AROUND 90,000 people took part in a trade union national day of action on Friday 6 November in opposition to the plans of the Irish government to cut €4 billion in pay, services and jobs in its December budget...

THOUSANDS OF General Motors (GM) car workers walked out across Germany on 5 November after the company pulled out of the sale of Opel/Vauxhall to Magna-Sberbank, the Austrian/Canadian/Russian consortium, writes Stephan Kimmerle, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).

The United Socialist Party (USP), the Sri Lankan section of the Committee for a Workers' International, held its eleventh national congress from 31 October to 1 November 2009 in Colombo, writes Siritunga Jayasuriya, secretary, United Socialist Party.

East London Bus Group workers, organised by Unite, held a 24-hour strike on 9 November. East London Bus Group (ELBG) bosses are trying to implement a pay freeze and attack pensions and holiday entitlement...

Members of Unite and PCS working at Fujitsu, will be on strike on 12, 13 and 16 November. This is the first national strike in the IT sector in the UK. The strike is over the threat of 1,200 redundancies,...

The higher education funding review that will look at university fees levels began on 9 November. On the same day a Compass/YouGov poll showed that only 12% of the public believe the review should even...

Austria: United action: The last months of raging capitalist crisis have seen devastating attacks begin on the living standards of workers and youth around the world, writes Laura Rafetseder, Socialist Left Party (SLP, CWI in Austria).

Four Socialist Party members - Onay Kasab, Glenn Kelly, Brian Debus and Suzanne Muna - are facing bans from holding office in Unison, ranging from three to five years. This was as a result of a leaflet distributed at Unison conference over two years ago!

We won't pay for their crisis: Nationalise all the banks on the basis of democratic public ownership - run by representatives of banking workers and trade unions, the wider working class, as well as the government...

The deregulated 'free market' associated with Thatcherism is discredited. For many workers this will mean turning towards socialist ideas. For the representatives of capitalism, however, it is a question...

This is a truly global crisis. Virtually no country has escaped its effects. Globally it is the poorest people in the poorest countries who are suffering the most. However, the OECD correctly predicted...

In New Labour Britain, privatisation rules. New Labour's sudden support for nationalisation of the banks will not prevent it continuing to try and sell off other public services, although in some cases...

As unemployment soars Britain will still have the longest working week in the European Union. New Labour has consistently fought for the right to opt out of EU laws limiting the working week to a maximum...

A particularly important factor is the absence of a mass political voice for the working class. Since 1997 the trade unions have given over £100 million of their members' money to New Labour. And what...

Climate change is accelerating. On 4 November the North Sea arctic ice cap fell below the record lows for November set during 2007. Updated daily, the National Snow and Ice Data centre's website shows...

FRIDAY 13TH was the date BA and Iberia announced the details of their proposed merger. While the potential pay-off of a successful merger will prove very lucky for the bank balances of bosses at BA and...

War legacy: A HUGE number of chronic infant deformities have been recorded in Falluja, Iraq. The city was flattened by US-led forces over a two month period in 2004 to suppress a Sunni-based insurgency...

LABOUR'S VICTORY in the Glasgow North East by-election last week by more than 8,000 votes over the Scottish National Party (SNP) seems, on the face of it, to be a surprise, writes Philip Stott, International Socialists (CWI Scotland).

"Don't mess with the best!" Is what one worker quipped to sellers of The Socialist the morning that the Brighton bin workers returned to work after less than two days of solid strike action, writes Sean Figg.

Scourge of mass youth unemployment: Youth unemployment is at a record high and what does the government do? It plans to slash funding for youth training schemes.
What do the bosses do? They cut jobs, pay and conditions.

Editorial: Instead of throwing millions on the scrap heap, the available work should be shared out. In Britain the working week is one of the longest in Europe. The average working week for full-time workers is 41...

Liverpool Council 1983 - 1987: Young people face enormous attacks on their right to a future - unemployment, low pay, ever-increasing university fees and slashed public services.
Here, Socialist Party activists provide a small taste of some of the past battles they have been involved in where victories were won by working and young people.

ONLY FOUR years after devastating floods forced thousands from their homes across the county, the heaviest rainfall on record brought rivers crashing over their banks and through people's homes, writes A Cumbrian resident.

THERE MUST be an election coming. All of a sudden, New Labour want us to believe that they're different to the Conservatives. After over 12 years of carrying out Tory policies, Gordon Brown and Co. used...

Young people fight for a future: All parents hope that their children will have better opportunities than were available to them. Today, for millions of working and middle class families, those hopes lie in ruins. The bleak and insecure...

Lewisham National Union of Teachers (NUT) secretary and Socialist Party member Martin Powell-Davies received over three thousand first preference votes in the election for NUT vice-president, coming fourth out of six candidates, writes Report from Socialist Party Teachers.

Unison has been hearing the appeals of four Socialist Party members and Unison activists who face bans from union office for up to five years in a vicious witch-hunt orchestrated by the Unison bureaucracy...

News of 127 job losses among support staff has been met with outrage by the staff and their trade unions at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), writes Hugh Caffrey and Socialist Party supporters at MMU.

On Tuesday 17 November a delegation from the Bristol Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) campaign met with the Liberal Democrat leader of Bristol city council, councillor Barbara Janke, to discuss the council's response to the present crisis of youth unemployment, writes Andrew Taggart, Bristol YFJ.

Stoke: After four 24-hour strikes at Axiom in Stoke, the workforce, Unite members, has become even more determined to win this dispute for a decent pay increase, writes Andy Bentley, Stoke Socialist Party.

TAMIL SOLIDARITY, an international campaigning network, is building up its forces in Greater Manchester against the Sri Lankan government's repression of Tamil speaking people, writes Lawrence Arokianathan, Tamil Solidarity, Manchester.

THE ISLE of Man (IoM) public sector faces massive cuts after the UK government imposed a new UK-IoM value added tax sharing agreement without any prior discussion between the two governments, writes Christian Daugherty, Isle of Man.

The first convention of the People's Charter took place on Saturday 21 November. Speakers included Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU, Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT, and John McDonnell...

Going to school may not be the most enjoyable experience for most. And it is getting more stressful with the pressure to excel in GCSE examinations, whilst being disappointed to find that even the most...

ON SATURDAY 21 November, the racist English Defence League, masquerading as the Welsh Defence League, held a demonstration outside a pub in Wrexham town centre, writes Dylan Roberts, Wrexham.
It comprised of 30 football hooligans from Bolton and a mere half a dozen local racists who chanted slogans such as "kill the Muslims".

CWI represented in Moscow debate: It's certainly the first time that the first speaker at a meeting in which the CWI participated was a Russian orthodox priest in full robe speaking through video link from St Petersburg...